


Our Despotic Despair

by TheOnlyHuman



Series: Dark Claws: What-ifs [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman Ninja (2018)
Genre: Adopted Children, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Angst, Bat Family, Batfamily Feels, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Cute, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Female Dick Grayson, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Jason Todd is Alive, Latin Grammar, Marriage Proposal, Resurrected Jason Todd, Romantic Fluff, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 12:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15605907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyHuman/pseuds/TheOnlyHuman
Summary: (Early 2018.)Feudal Age Japan.Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick, Rachel thinks. Kill me now.Or:That oneshot that is way too long and tells the story of the Batfam getting transported into Feudal Age Japan, focussing on Rachel.





	Our Despotic Despair

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: Went over this piece of crap and edited it. Spelling mistakes are now fixed and some of this is worded better.  
> Warning: I never said it was better, read at your own risk.

 

It's quick and sudden. One moment she's fighting with Ivy, Red Hood to her left shooting at Grodd who's decided to randomly appear, the familiar hum of the family comm link in her ears; the next, she's dead center in the middle of a stream. Her comm spits static.

White flashes in her eyes and she blinks. Her HUD is gone, offline. There is no longer an Oracle at the end of the connection. Water laps at her knee-high boots, wanting in. Her chest feels tight, the air wrong.

Screams make her jolt. The sound grates on her, high pitched, terrified and ringing, and she looks up. Her arms feel like jelly, her legs kool-aid, as she stares down the hollering women, dressed in the common eighteen hundred Japanese casual wear of yukatas. They're screaming at  _her_. Faces red, washing dropped in the stream and looking ready to bolt as they stare down the woman who's just appeared. 

It strikes Rachel how strange she must look there and then. She's decked out in the highest of technology, her Nightwing gauntlets, although being sleek and slim, are sparking wildly at her stomach where she'd pulled them into a defensive postistion at the screams. Her suit is decades ahead of this time periods fabrics, nevermind the fact her cowl lenses are electricity based. She's willing to bet the protein bar in her belt would be able to feed a family for a week here. Her claws? Well, they're a totally different story. She doubts adamantium was even found yet in this period. Knows for a fact it was not.

" _Who are you?_ " One of the women shout, stepping forward, unanimously deciding to be the strong one. She's wearing a beautiful flower design yakata that smoothly wraps around her body. There's some sort of flower in her bun-tied hair.

Rachel panics, not recognising the language until she realises they speak Old Japanese.  _I never learned that,_  she thinks desparingly. Her hopes for communiacting with the people vanish before they even spawn. Tiredly, she finds there's only two options; she can try to talk to these women and persude them she's not a threat, but that will be hard with no language skills, or she can run.

She does what she's done for most of her life and turns tail and sprints. The cries of the women follow her downstream.

 

 

It takes three days. Three whole days of ducking in and out of forests, avoiding places where people will see her and trying to blend in with the shadows at night. Three days before she comes across some adequate era-appropriate clothes.

She steals them from a bathing woman who seems well-to-do so Rachel doesn't mourn over the choice (not that she would've). She steals them with a startling sort-of fevor borne from the need to blend in that isn't at all surprising to her inner demons. Red had even laughed as Rachel'd put it on.

She sits in a tree, legs swinging in the breeze as she watches a warlord's men pass by on their usual patrol. The woman will start shouting soon, she knows, but Rachel holds no fear of being found. Even now, years in the past, people didn't look up much.

The yakata is just a tad too big but she fixes that as much as she can by tightening it. It's a beautiful light red with dashes of grey intertwining within the patterns of luscious flowers in full bloom. The sandels fit well and within a few hours she will find herself walking comfortably in them. She always had adapted quickly to new situations: it was what had made her such a brilliant assassin.

She hadn't been The Talon for over five decades just because she was pretty.

 

 

_"People believe what they want to believe."_

Cobb had told her that once and it had stuck with her. It had come in handy too, more than once had she thought back on it while Red ruled, using it as a guiding point for decievance. It had worked amazingly well.

That's why it still worked, really, it should've been no surprise to her; people's ideals changed with time but not their minds, not their thinking processes, not their core base instincts. Sure, they became smarter but they still followed that very baseline of instincts that were so easily corrupted to help them along on their way.

She told a man at a schoolhouse she needed to learn the language through some tedious shrimps and prawns, but she did it nevertheless. He had been hospitable (after a while), not asking questions, not assuming, merely teaching her what she needed to know.

His name was Tai-Shunn. He taught her the basics first; the alphabet, numbers, connectetives, preposistions and random vocabulary that was commonly used. By the time three months had passed with the man Rachel (her Japanese name, Ishna Kilhosha) was able to hold up a very small conversastion by herself, sounding like a local. Within a few weeks, Rachel came to understand his fickle nature and started seeing him as some sort of family.

Tai-Shunn went on to teach her about the weather, animals, homes, places, food, everything to anything one would find around the towns. He taught her how to live off nothing, teaching her the basics of farming the land and eventually, looking after animals through a few of his friends. He'd always said that although she may not need it, it was useful information to have: for that she was eternally grateful.

Five months in and he began to teach her the posh words, words common day folk didn't say or use. When she questioned him, he said, "You are a special one, my girl. You do not rise with the sun, but instead the sun rises _with_ you. You hold power, that is what I shall feed."

To say she didn't understand him would've been an understatement but she got the gist of what he was saying. He thought she was destined for something. And to be honest, she did too. It was in her bones, the weary tingle of lusing power that allowed her to rule. She'd never felt it so strongly before this, only when she was with the Court, only when Red was there - urging and pushing her body towards it.

She finished learning the language in seven months, an extraordinary feat according to Tai-Shunn. Rachel left him a month later, when her instincts became too much and she began to feel restless.

He waved her good-bye with a smile, a pouch of rice and her promises to visit.

She never got to visit as a few weeks later, Joker appeared, amassed an army, and flattened Tai-Shunn's village where it stood. Rachel swore she'd stand up against the bastard.

She stood up for family. No matter what.

 

 

There where rumours going around of a faltering lord; of no heir; of an open space for someone to sweep in should they hold power to rule a county. There where whispers of unhappy people, of a stupid man leading his people to death. Whispers of a man, losing his power and drowning in the sorrows of the death of his late wife.

Silently, Rachel listened and planned.

On the fifth of June, two years into her stay in Feudal Japan, Rachel (Ishina Kilvasha - she changed her name so no one could trace her back) challenged a county's lord and won. She gained his lands and his people.

She became a Queen; a true _Lady._ (Or as the Japanese said, a Shogun - a warlord.)

She began to create protection for those against Joker, she began and fueled the rebels.

And no one could prove it was her.

Because as far as they knew, Ishna Kilhosha was a normal woman who didn't like the Joker and Ishina Kilvasha was a Lady who spoke of nothing on the matter.

Two separate people in their own right.

No one was any the wiser.

Rachel liked Feudal Age Japan.

 

 

_Tata_ appeared 5 years after she'd claimed her throne. She'd been there 7 years and was more than ready to leave, with people speculating she used dark, mystical magics to stay young and alive. Rachel silently laughed at those who tried to recreate whatever they thought she'd done.

It was by pure chance the previous Lord's grandfather had had a daughter that looked just like her. She'd been rumoured to be their daughter, Shinoa, even though the girl was long dead. People could assume whatever they wanted, Rachel honestly didn't care what they said as long as she got a laugh out of it.

"I'm here to seek an audience with Lady Kilvasha." Bruce said, looking ragged with the rest of the family behind him.

Tim and Damian were bickering like Rachel remembered they always used to, Jason was standing with Cassandra, both basking in silent companionship. Her heart ached at the sight of the man - of the _family -_ she hadn't seen in years. Stephanie and Duke were playing Rocks, Paper, Scissors at the back of the group, uncaring to the odd glances Rachel's people were giving them. The sight of her family filled her with a renewed strength and hope that she'd thought long gone.

There was still no Oracle and it made her heart pang. 

They didn't seem to recognise her, though she supposed she didn't either. What, with all the changes over the years: her hair had grown longer, currently in a grand plait, and the tips dulled to a silken white that looked synthetic (it was some thing going weirdly with the serum and prolonged interaction with particles from the past), she'd grown paler yet she'd gained a tan at the same time -lightening her skin tone, _somehow-_ and the yukata she wore no doubt changed her a lot. With the silken blues and purples bringing out her eyes and making them shine. Well, that's what Himiko (her personal maid, a true SoB) said.

"The Mistress is terribly busy at the moment," she said and hid her smile as the people milling around smirked at her antics. This wasn't the first time she'd done such a thing. "May I inquire as to what travellers such as yourselves require of her prescence?"

She watched as Jason tensed and Cassandra put a nimble hand on his arm, seeming to calm him as he blew out a breath. _I wonder if his fuse grew shorter?_ She wondered as Bruce, head freshly shaven, spoke up in a rustier yet just as good old Japanese accent. "We bring matters important to her work."

He closed his mouth at that and didn't seem like he wanted to elaborate. Tim sighed behind him, obviously thinking the same as her. That all just made her even more curious.

Rachel raised her eyebrows, deciding to be annoying. "Work such as?"

"Her youth," Bruce said, painfully obvious that he was at a loss. "We know the truth."

Rachel blinked at him, putting on a neutral face, before the dam broke and she burst out laughing. She doubled over onto her folded legs, body tipping so that her nose nearly touched the front porch's bamboo floor. Rachel felt the air stiffen as her family assumed the worst and went into cautious, fight or flight mode.

It took her a moment to stop laughing and by the time she'd pushed herself back to a sitting posistion she found most of her people were smirking knowingly at her. Her family hadn't yet noticed that fact.

"I can't breathe! Youth," She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please do tell me what I use to stay alive, _tata."_

She watched with a long lost glee as the expressions of shock and sudden understanding bloomed on her family's faces.

And maybe she was getting old - sentimental by herself, because never before had she called B  _tata._

 

 

"So you became a _Shogun_?" B asked for what must've been the fifteenth time. Jason snorted for her.

"Yes, B. That _is_ what she said or do ya need her to retell the story a third time?"

Rachel smiled at Jason's sarcasm as Tim rolled his eyes, leaning forward to ask her a question. The boy had been oddly interested in her story. Rachel honestly didn't know what was so great about it.

"Who really taught you Old Japanese, R?" Tim asked and the room went silent as if everyone had been thinking the same thing. "'Cuz I _know_ it wasn't on your known language list back home."

"Is it so hard to believe the old man was just a nice guy?" She asked, smirking at them all. She supposed she should catch up on her decievance skills, testing them on her family was a good start. Tai-Shunn _had_ need some persuasion in the form of death threats but he'd went with it in the end, walking on eggshells the whole time.

Jason cast her a look, "Knowing _you,_ Rachel, you probably bribed him."

Damian -tt-ched, glowering at Jason's jab. "As if Rachel would do such a thing."

Cassandra, (Rachel didn't know if what she said was a compliment or a jab) spoke up. "You'd be surprised, Baby Bird."

Damian scowled at both Cassandra and the name. "As if," he huffed, sitting the way he did when he was annoyed. "And do not call me that retched name."

"What?" Questioned Tim, " _Baby Bird?"_ He mocked.

Damian scowled and Stephanie spoke up before someone lost their head. "Hey Rachel," the teenager said, halfway through plaiting her hair in a copy of Rachel's. She was doing well considering how she was going off Rachel's messy version of it. "I don't recal you telling us how long you've been here."

Rachel raised an eyebrow as Tim nodded, "Yeah, the rumours of Lady Kilvasha are at least a century old and judging from your appearance, Talon blood or not, you haven't been here for a hundred years."

Rachel shrugged, deciding to deflect the statement. "How long have you all been here?"

Tim raised an eyebrow but answered her anyway, "I arrived after Damian, I've been here two years."

"And I after Jason," Damian said, casting his eldest brother a sour look. "I have been here a sumtotal of two years, seven months and nineteen days."

Stephanie snorted at that, chiming in her own opinion. "If I didn't know any better, _Baby Bird,_ I'd say you've been counting."

"Well," Damian said hautily, ignoring the nickname in favour of a quip. "I, unlike the rest of you baboonic fools, have the higher education and the ability to count over ten."

"No see - listen: 10, 11, 12," Jason said, then stuck his tongue out and went cross-eyed. "...19."

Stephanie and Cassandra snorted, Tim rolled his eyes but smiled and Rachel swore she seen B smirk. Damian scowled and muttered under his breath, "See: a baboonic fool."

"Think the kid's ran out of insults," Duke smirked from where he'd been analysing a katana on the wall. He pulled it off the stand with a whistle of appreciation. "Yours?" He asked.

Rachel shook her head, "My predessesors great-grandfathers. You can have it if you want."

Duke stowed it away with a grin, Damain glowered at her. Rachel smirked at him, "You've got enough of those things to last you a life-time, kiddo. I don't think you'll miss not having _one._ "

"Anyway," Stephanie said, pulling the conversastion back on track. "Me and Cass were together when the time bomb went off and we popped up here together. We've been here a year."

Rachel nodded at that, it seemed the closer one got to the time bomb the later they appeared. She reasoned that she _had_ been the furthest away from it. She was just glad it had only been her, left to try and survive for seven years all alone. Rachel stifled a shiver at the thought. At least the others had all had someone with them.

Duke raised his hand obligingly as he plopped down beside Cass, where she was playing with a flower she'd stolen from one of Rachel's vases. "I've been here a couple of months and am, quite frankly, very happy I was interested in history and languages at school."

Everyone laughed in some form at that. Duke smiled, proud with himself for breaking the silence they'd suddenly fallen into.

"Been here five years, learned the language from a dying woman and roamed for a good part of three. Found Timmers somewhere in the west, hiding out in a miserable old shack." Jason grunted, fiddling around with his empty guns. Rachel doubted he had any bullets left, or any origninal ones at least.

Tim had the decency to look embarassed about being found hiding in a shack but Rachel gave him a reasuring smile, small as it was. That seemed to help him. She knew being found in a shack was less embarrasing than being found a mindless, insane assassin.

"And I've been here for a few weeks." Bruce chimed in, pulling them all out of the gutter. His voice rumbled in a way Rachel remembered from her early days of Nightwing, of times where everything was simple and they had each other and Alfred. "How long have _you_ been here, Rachel?"

She grinned, and imagined her canines flashing in the evening sunset. "Oh," she hummed innocently. "Only around 7 years."

She wished she'd offered them tea in that instant, if only to see them choke on something other than their saliva.

  

 

Rachel found Jason in her courtyard, sitting on the small wooden bench overlooking the pond with the little wooden bridge going over it. The sun was setting which made it hard for her to see but she shouldered onwards and let her hair fall down to shield her eyes once she had sat down beside him, desperately trying to ignore the way he stiffened.

Bruce had decided that because the family had been separated for a few years (more than two in most cases), they now had to make time in the evenings to train together. Which would've been fine for Rachel had Jason not changed so much.

Now, she didn't doubt she hadn't changed either but Jason had become so weary and lonely. He'd distanced himself from her the moment he saw her and now, each time she tried to reconnect with the man she'd missed so much, he pushed her away time and time again, each time more painfully than the last. Rachel wasn't sure why but she knew if she didn't break his tough exterior of ice, her heart would break before she got anywhere. There was only so much rejection a person chasing love could take before they gave up.

"How have you been?" She asked fruitlessly. She didn't know what to talk about, what to do, what to say, that had always been Jason's domain.

"Fine," He said in a tone that screamed he was _not_ fine. Rachel felt her heart ache for him. "Not as good as you've been. I see you've got this whole place. Do you have those Samurai warriors that are in the movies?"

"Yeah, I do." She said, smiling as the setting sun was breifly covered by clouds and she was able to look at the pond. She saw a glimmer of gold as the koi popped up for a late dinner, before it retreated, just as fast as it had appeared, and the water rippled to compensate for the loss. "I have guards too, to stop people from getting too suspicious. That doesn't mean I don't keep them on their toes though."

Jason huffed out a breath. Rachel hoped that it was a laugh, even if a tired one. "Poor guys, you'll be giving them all heart attacks soon, Rache."

Rachel laughed, settling closer to him. "Sure, sure. What were you doing while I was keeping my men on their feet?"

She knew instantly it was the wrong thing to say as Jason tensed tighter than a strummed bowstring. His head turned away in a blatant rejection and as Rachel's heart screamed with pain, her gut twisted in anguish. Wishing she could backtrack, to fix it, she added, "Though you did say you were with Timbo. Tutoring him on the fine delacacies of survival, were you, Jase?"

She said it jokingly, hitting his bicep with her shoulder to emphasise the point but Jason just shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Rachel."

_What?_

She panicked, she didn't know what she'd done. It had been meant as a joke, surely Jason knew that...

"Jase, don't worry, it was just a-"

"No." He interrupted and suddenly he was looking at her, his beautiful green eyes hazy with tears and his lips red from being bitten. Rachel would've felt more worry had he not grabbed her wrists in a squeezing grip and pain shot up her arms.

"Not that," He continued. "While it's cute you made a joke I don't deserve it."

"What?" She asked, feeling a tad threatened despite everything. Her instincts were terrible when they got on a roll and she could only wish Jason let up before she accidentally hurt him. He squeezed her wrists harder and the shock was enough to make her gasp.

Jason blinked instantly, green balls of fire shooting down to his large hands and her small wrists. Like a spontaneous combustion, he yelped and threw himself back, scrambling backwards on his hands and backside on the gravel.

Rachel didn't know what had happened to get them to this point -she didn't know where she'd went wrong- but she'd be damned if she just left it here to rot and burn.

She stood up catiously and lowered herself in front of him as he shook, tears running down his cheeks unbidden as he glared in shock at his calloused hands. "I'm so, _so_ sorry, Rachel." He muttered.

Rachel tried to sooth him by pulling his chin up so his own eyes met her own sparkling blue ones. His eyes, glassy and hazed with something she couldn't recognise stared back up at her in a zombie like state that made the blood rush to her ears and made her hear static in the bad way. She'd panic soon too if she didn't do something about it.

"It's okay, babe." She hummed, pulling him into a hug which he quickly turned bone crushing. "You have nothing to apologise for. Nothing at all, we all get panicked."

Jason disagreed with something she'd said. She knew it the moment he pulled away. They were dangerously close to the pond's edge and despite its small demaneur, Rachel knew it could drown someone. She wasn't sure if someone as tall as Jason (well over six foot, maybe six foot three?) could stand up in it and she didn't want to test anything today.

"No."

"No?"

"I cheated on you."

_What?_ Rachel didn't understand why he was so riled up at this, it didn't mean much to her. He'd came back anyway, hadn't he? "And?"

Jason looked up at her, only taller than him because she was crouching, with wide almost furious eyes. "What do you mean, 'and?' I cheated on you Rachel! I went out there and played hookey because I was alone and I missed you and I couldn't fucking get enough-"

Rachsl cut his rant off before he got too invested. "So? As long as you didn't disrupt the timeline I see nothing wrong with you having fun, Jay."

Jason looked ready to start bawling again. "You don't understand, Rache. I went out there and fucked other women, I went out there and justified it because I was miserable and I missed you. And what were you doing? You were here, building power, becoming stronger-"

"Alone."

"Huh?"

Rachel felt the tears well up. She couldn't deal with this, years of isolation and only talking to her maids had worn on her. She didn't know how to act anymore, she didn't know how to help him. "I was lonely too. Miserable, Jay. I cried myself to sleep Jason, so many times I've lost count. I still do... Or, did. Jason, I did it too. I became insatiable. I yearned for a good man in bed so much I began to charm my way anywhere I could get. And even then, after sleeping with so many Shoguns and Samurai, I still love you, Jason. You are the only one I-"

"No." He muttered. Rachel was gettng really annoyed at how they kept cutting each other off now. "I get that, I understand, Rache'. You've always needed a lot - I get that."

She did _not_ need 'a lot'. Rachel frowned.

"And now I know I'm not enough, but seriously, I can't just walk up to you and tell you I've cheated and have you just nod and go, 'oh, that's okay'. That's.. that's not the way it works, Rachel."

Today really wasn't her day, was it? Her tears overflowed and Rachel sniffed as she quickly pulled a hand up to wipe them away before Jason noticed.

Of course he looked up right then, and his eyes widened. It would've been comical had she not been inching closer to hysterics. She couldn't breathe, was she even getting air? The panic and pain and all her other emotions -frustration, hate, love, worry, anguish- bubbled up and seemed to become rock solid in her throat. She cried louder, head ducking down, tears running like they were doing a marathon sprint, as she gasped for air.

"Oh god, Rachel." He looked panicked, flittering around for a second before moving in to hug her before thinking better of it and backing away. Rachel let out a sob and clung to him before he retreated. Hurriedly, almost frenzied, he changed his tactis to trying to peel her off him instead. "No, Rachel. Please, look at what I've done now. I've made you cry, and I.. That's terrible, R. I.. I can't hurt you for no good reason other than because I love you."

The dam broke as everything crashed in and Rachel buried her face in Jason's chest.

"W-why are yo-you so stupid?" She hicuped, tears ran down her cheeks like they had that night as Rachel tried and failed to suck in breaths of oxygen. "I love y-you, Jason. I lov-e you so, so much. I don't- I don't care about anything else!"

She hicuped again as Jason stilled, feeling like he'd frozen in place. "You don't actually mean that, R. Please, don't..."

Rachel sneezed and now she had to gasp in a few lungfuls of air. Jason winced at the sound, Rachel couldn't really hear because her ears had went all weird (like they were filled with cotton) but her throat ached and she didn't feel like she was getting much air in at all. Was it weird she felt light? Like she was lying on a float of pillows - or clouds - even though Jason's arms were still firmly wrapped around her.

Suddenly, Jason's hands were on her back, rubbing calming circles. "Shh," He whispered in her ear, leaning down to nuzzle her. "I'm sorry, it's okay. I was being stupid, Rachel." The air felt heavy, as if it didn't want her. She shook as new tears threatened to spring lose. Tears of frustraition, tears she'd been holding back since she'd found her family (or rather, since they'd found her). Jason's voice grew deeper, just the way she liked, and he pulled her chin up to kiss her on the tip of her nose.

"It's okay, Rachel. Breathe, c'mon, you can do it. I love you, sweetie. C'mon baby, nice deep breaths, just like this." Jason sucked in a deep, calm breath and Rachel copied. "Yeah, uh-huh, you got it girl. That's it."

Rachel slumped into his hold as she calmed down. The world seemed fuzzy, everything having slowed down except for Jason's heartbeat which now just seemed too loud. She went to sit up but Jason's arms wrapped around her just that bit more and kept her clutched to him, like a mother with her newborn. It kept her grounded.

"Shh, it's okay now. You're okay, we're okay."

She embraced the younger man's warmth as the realisation of them being outside hit. She shivered suddenly, jolting them both as the wind howled around them.

Jason lifted her with ease, tucking her legs around him as he shifted the yukata to let him lift her better.

"You got a good bed, baby?" He murmured in her ear.

Rachel tried to laugh but hiccuped instead. Jason rubbed her back. "Yeah.. stay?"

He nuzzled her neck lovingly. "Anything for you, baby."

 

 

Rachel had never seen the point in sunbathing. Apparently, Jason did. (Not that she had ever knew of this.)

"You have a huge-ass veranda, Rachel." He'd said earlier that morning as B had roped everyone else into going hunting with him, taking advantage of Rachel's land. "Why not use if for something useful?"

That ended up with the two of them lying out on her bamboo'd out front veranda that was supposed to give them shade but didn't, with tacky blankets as their mats and wearing nothing but their underwear. Rachel had warned her people away from them (at Jason's insistence) for the day so their chances of being interrupted were slim.

"Nice weather you got here," Jason rumbled from beside her. The sun was out and the feeling of it beating down on them was actually quite nice.

"Mmm. Up this part of the country it's usually stormy so this is a nice change." She hadn't felt this good in a while, always it was 'Mistress Kilvasha, there are enemy samurai on the border' or 'the crops have failed, your orders?' Or 'oh, Mistress, there has been a complication'. Never was it just... peaceful. Her arms were crossed behind her head, making for a nice pillow. Honestly, she would've been tempted to fall asleep had the fear of sunburn not kept her alert. There was only so much one could do in a period without suncream.

Jason hummed something that was lost to her ears as he rolled up beside her and trailed his fingertips along her side. It tickled and Rachel laughed as she disturbed her arms to bat him away. "Shoo, Jase."

"Aww," He purred in her ear and Rachel didn't deny the need bubbling up in her stomach. "You don't want to play?"

He rolled on top of her, narrowly avoiding squishing her by pushing his arms out to keep him up by her sides, effectively trapping her. He leant down suggestively and tapped her nose with his as she giggled.

"Are you laughing at me?" He growled playfully, leaning down just a bit more to steal a kiss. He lowered himself, just enough to push his muscled chest up against hers. "Hmm?"

She pushed up in a show of speed and pecked his cheek. Purring lowly, "Of course not, I wouldn't dare."

"Eww, guys," A familiar feminine voice crowed. It surprised the couple and they both shot up, which ended up with Jason keeling on his knees with Rachel awkwardly sprawled over him. "Get a room!"

"Shut up, Stephanie!" That was Duke. Stephanie had obviously been the one who'd shouted. "Ah, look what you did now! They were being so cute!"

Steph huffed comically at Duke, hitting his shoulder. "Don't worry, Duke. We all know you want a lady but alas the time has not yet-"

"Steph." Cass said warningly, popping up behind Stephanie with a dead squirrel propped up on her shoulder. Rachel's stomach turned at the sight of meat.

"Heh." Stephanie smirked awkwardly, "Sorry."

Tim chose then to walk through her Estate's gates and promptly blushed at both Rachel and Jason. "I'm going to forget I ever seen anything, forcefully if I need to."

B followed after him, dragging behind a dead stag on a makeshift raft. (Oh god.) He smirked at them and Jason took that moment to peel Rachel off him. "Just what has been happening here while we were gone?"

"I think it is quite obvious, Father." Damian said, strolling up behind him.

At the same time, Rachel said, "We were sunbathing."

Clouds appeared them and covered the sun. Steph smirked mischievously at them. "Suure."

Rachel rolled her eyes as Jason stood up, smiling softly like everyone else. Rachel took the opportunity to pull her legs under her as Jason kneeled down on one leg beside her.

He cleared his throat, prompting Rachel to look at him and blink in surprise.

He had a ring. It was beautiful, a simple silver that sparkled in the rays of sunlight that filtered through the clouds, it was clear it had been kept clean as it glimmered from the plush, red cushioned box it sat within. Rachel's heart got stuck in her throat.

"Rachel." He started and feeling like she weighed a thousand pounds, Rachel slowly pulled her cerulean eyes up to meet his own emerald ones. "I've known you for a very long time, since I was fourteen and you were eighteen. Now at first, we didn't really get along, me being the ratty street kid and you, to me, being the cold rich girl. Then, we bonded over Alfred's cookies and then over Robin and Nightwing. Then, after a few years, things went down the drain. I died, you went off to travel and everything was a bit stunted."

Rachel felt her heart tug. Was he..? With the ring, it made sense...

"And amazingly we met up again a few years later, we fell in love with each other not knowing who the other was and after finding out who we were, we stuck together. We've been through a lot together, R. Through thick and thin and well... I just wanted to ask you this one thing.."

He was.

_Oh my god._

He settled down into a sturdier kneel, face set and eyes shining with hope. "Will you, Rachel Wayne, the love of my life, my ex-Talon and fucking shogun in Feudal Age Japan, marry me?"

Rachel felt the world spin even though she was sitting down. Time seemed to slow down and lithe but sharp hands traced her shoulders and squeezed.

Red leaned in behind her, raspy voice nothing more than a whisper. _"You don't love him, you can't. You're nothing but a dished up, fucking bitch of a traitor. You left the Court to burn while you went with a man you didn't know to his Manor. Traitors and deserters don't deserve love!"_

_They don't, do they?_ She whispered back. The world burned behind her eyes and she sucked in a shocked breath before replying, feeling stunned. "Of course, yes. Yes, dammit. I love you, Jason. I really do love you."

He grinned, and Rachel could feel her own grin splitting her face in two, as he slid on the ring. It had ' _verus_ _amor meus'_ cut on it, Latin no doubt. She wondered what it meant.

"Latin," Jason said, as if he was reading her mind. "Means _my true love._ "

Red reeled back, hissing.

Rachel pulled Jason down for a kiss. "Thank you. I love it... and you." He laughed in the kiss, making it rumble nicely.

_Then why would I love you?_

_"What?"_ Red sneered. _"What do you mean?"_

_You are as bad as I a_ _m, Red. If I'm a traitor, then you are too._

Red didn't speak again.

Rachel suddenly became acutely aware of her family hooting and hollering over to their right.

Stephanie quirked her eyebrows, grinning smugly, "We'll leave you two to it then, shall we, while we get this food to the chefs?"

No one mentioned that there were other people that could do that for them, instead everyone followed Stephanie, all either giving them shit eating grins, cheeky winks or a thumbs up.

Bruce stood there for a second, face blank, before he walked up to them and clapped Jason on the back. He pulled them both into a bone crushing hug and his smile lit up his face. "I'm proud of you both," He kissed her forehead then ruffled Jay's hair. "Congratulations, both of you."

Rachel felt giddy. "Thanks, dad."

Jason smiled at her then smiled up at B. "Yeah, cheers, old man."

B scowled playfully at them as he released them and stepped back. "Oi, you rascal." He gave them both his rare soft smile before he glanced over to the kitchens. "I'd better go make sure Stephanie and Duke haven't teamed up and killed anyone, knowing Cass she'd be silently watching and Damian would be giving commentary." He gave them one last smile. "Really, I'm proud of you both, well done."

"Thanks, dad." Jason said just as Bruce turned away and walked down the patio steps. Rachel swore Bruce smiled again as he walked away, offering them a wave.

Jason tugged her to his side, wrapping his arm around her waist and lifting her up to hook her legs around his waist with an impressive show of strength and flexibility. He purred, "How about we continue that game of ours?"

Rachel smiled, feeling the grounding weight of the ring on her ring finger. "Why not?"

 

 

They didn't need Grodd, Rachel reasoned to B one late night as he mulled over whether or not he should recruit the gorilla's help.

The man-monkey had a bad track record when it came to being nice and Rachel didn't feel safe risking her family in the hands of that thing. She wouldn't allow him within ten yards of any of them. Allied or not.

"We've done a lot more than that walking, talking ape will ever know or have to do." She reasoned, "If he wins in stupidity, we win in experience and cunning. We're the Waynes, we stick together no matter what. We don't need an outsiders help."

That seemed to do it. Or maybe it was because that was the only advice Rachel had given B in a while, and her advice had always been good. Though, she liked to think it was her speech.

 

 

Rachel wasn't sure when she'd arrived but Catwoman was apparently in Feudal Japan too.

At B's insistence they recruited her for the final showdown. Rachel greeted her with a smile too bright to be entirely real. Selina greeted her in kind.

She didn't trust Selina and she didn't have to. So what if Jay liked her?

 

 

"Holy shit," Jason swore upon seeing the secret room Rachel had hidden behind her throne. In a neat row, gleaming in the fake lights, sat eight gleaming suits, each individually tailored for each member of the family.

They looked like their real time suits but more Feudal-y and less techy.

Rachel hid her proud smile. "It was the best I could come up with at such short notice. I apologise if some adjustments you had made aren't on them, I went off my memory as best I could."

Duke whistled, picking up Darkwing's arm. He studied it intently and smiled up at her, "No bother, thanks a lot Rachel!"

Jason lifted his helmet and slid it on. He nodded and flipped it open, "Sweet but aren't we missing a few _things?"_

Rachel smiled and threw him a cartridge full of real bullets she'd made when they'd all went hunting once. His grin could've blinded a lesser man.

She could've sworn Damian winced, though the laughter (clearly Stephanie's) and Cass's recognisable snort that followed probably meant he couldn't reach his domino on the mannequin.

She turned around and laughed. She'd thought that his stand would've been too tall and had thought about changing it to a shorter one but the very sight of him on his tip-toes, arms strained and stretched to try and grab it with scrabbling hands, made the sure to be displeased scowl from B and following mini lecture (because yes, he still did those) all the more worth it.

 

 

"Tomorrow's the day, huh?" Jason mutters, tracing random patterns on her bare stomach.

They're lying on their backs on their shitty Japanese bed. Both still reeling from adrenaline after having a sparring match at their midnight family training session, trying to get some sleep.

Yes. Tomorrow was the day. The endgame. Their last chance.

The day they would finally strike against the Joker. Everything's been planned, outposts tracked, soldier numbers and all possibilities numbered and accounted for. Rachel knows this, she knows it all she helped plan, they all did, but it doesn't stop the dread from curling up and settling heavily in her stomach.

Jason's hands strayed downstairs as he planted soft kisses on the side of her temple. "You're looking little stressed out over there, baby. Let me help you with that~"

They didn't sleep much.

 

 

The thrill of a fight was instant, adrenaline coursing through her blackened veins as she cut down the Joker's foot soliders. And oh god was it fun.

"The castles are rising!" Someone, possibly Tim, shouted from the other side of the field. They'd been lucky, no matter how much Jason had cursed the land out, for being put in a wide, broad area. Sure, it made hiding hard but in a fight like this the last thing Rachel wanted anyone to do was hide. It made it easy to see what was going on and who needed help where.

They'd fight til the last breath was drawn, from friend or foe.

 

 

They made it out with a few scratches but few true casualties.

The Clan of the Bat won and Rachel handed her throne down to her second in command. (A responsible man whose name she knew was in the history books because of truth and loyalty. She knew he'd do the right thing).

Satisfied with how things had been done and what they were being left like, everyone packed up, said goodbye and left.

(And, "Yes, Selina. I saw you take that vase, put it back."

"Aww, little kitten, you're no fun!")

Rachel was met first thing with a faceful of dog slabbers as Ace pounced on her. She laughed as he woofed happily, tail wagging like a windmill in a storm. "Hey, boy! I've missed you too!"

She was _home._ Finally, _she was home._

No,  _they_ were home.

Jason walked over and pulled her up into a long kiss. Rachel drowned out the sound of Duke fake gagging at them and kissed back.

Barbara sprinted in from the kitchen, Alfred in tow. She gaped before brusting into tears. Alfred deflated.

"You assholes!" Their Oracle shouted. "It's been a week, we thought you were dead."

"We don't go down that easy, Babs." Rachel smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> TĂTIC : Daddy in Romanian. Rachel calls John Grayson (her real dad) this. Apologies if wrong, I translated it from Google Translate.
> 
> TATA : Dad in Romanian. Rachel calls Bruce this, seperating him from her real dad. Again, apologies if wrong, it's translated from Google Translate.
> 
> I don't even know if there were countys irl, I'm just going off my limited knowledge of the places all the villains owned in the movie. It seemed to me like there were sections so I decided to make Rachel a ruler of one. I don't know where's free for her to take but just think about it like Rachel opposing the other baddies on owning land and not giving it up. She must've been a real pain in the butt.
> 
> All the names of my OC's (Tai-Shunn - it doesn't sound Japanese but go with it) and Rachel's multiple names are made up by me on the spot and if they have any meanings they aren't intented as such. I put them in 'cuz I thought up of them and thought they were cool. A bit like Kill-Vash-A (or Kill-Vas-Ha) for Rachel's surname. (Kill because she's killed peoplw before, vash -I thought- sounded a bit like rash and Rachel is here to be annoying to the baddies so it makes sense and a was just to make it sound a little more Japanese-ish.) I thought it fit.


End file.
